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A review by onceandfuturelaura
Black Panther by Rich Buckler, Ben Saunders, Billy Graham, Don McGregor, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Nnedi Okorafor
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
3.0
Collects and contextualizes Black Panther's origin stories. It starts with his slightly cringe-inducing introduction in Fantastic Four (I have it on good authority that our secretary of state has a copy of an original). T'Challa tricks the Fantastic Four into coming to Wakanda to help him flight Ulysses Klaw, after testing them "Most Dangerous Game" style. He is thwarted by Johnny's roommate. Apparently, T'Challa joins the Avengers for a while after that. That is passed over. The anthology starts up again in a ballsy redirect of what I am sure was a cringe-worthy series called Jungle Tales. The writers and artists slipped in a long form story called The Panther's Rage. T'Challa returns to Wakanda to find it in disarray because of his absence and civil unrest. Killmonger, from beginning the exile returned, exploits that and from the beginning, does his best to throw T'Challa off that water fall. Nakia is a villain. It ends with T'Challa fighting the KKK.
I learned from the fine essays in this book that multi-ethnic creative team fought constant pressure to have white people be the heroes. They resisted, and that might have killed the title. For a while.
There are pieces here I really like. The essays by Ben Saunders, Nnedi Okorafor, and Don McGregor are great. T'Challa has grown enormously since these stories, but there is a core of his character that's there at least by The Panther's Rage, 1973. I really like that he is uncompromising in fighting the KKK and that there is no hiding the fact these men are powerful parts of the local order. The frank acknowledgment by a reporter that America has not lived up to its founding fairy tale and his lurching attempts to make it a reality.
There are things I don't like. There are a lot of pages dedicated to almost lascivious hand to hand combat with animals (including dinosaurs!), none of which seemed necessary and all of which the Black Panther inevitably wins. It was jarring seeing him stroll around some small town in Georgia in full battle armor. Wakanda seems to have had a Lazarus pit, which is never satisfactorily explained.
I'm really tickled how much of the movies call back to individual panels. The waterfall. T'Challa catching one of K'Ruel's arrows the way he catches Hawkeye's. The silent ships sliding over the landscape. The accusation that T'Challa himself is part of the establishment that is not creating a just order.
I am glad I read it, though it was a bit of a slog some times. Wakanda forever.
I learned from the fine essays in this book that multi-ethnic creative team fought constant pressure to have white people be the heroes. They resisted, and that might have killed the title. For a while.
There are pieces here I really like. The essays by Ben Saunders, Nnedi Okorafor, and Don McGregor are great. T'Challa has grown enormously since these stories, but there is a core of his character that's there at least by The Panther's Rage, 1973. I really like that he is uncompromising in fighting the KKK and that there is no hiding the fact these men are powerful parts of the local order. The frank acknowledgment by a reporter that America has not lived up to its founding fairy tale and his lurching attempts to make it a reality.
There are things I don't like. There are a lot of pages dedicated to almost lascivious hand to hand combat with animals (including dinosaurs!), none of which seemed necessary and all of which the Black Panther inevitably wins. It was jarring seeing him stroll around some small town in Georgia in full battle armor. Wakanda seems to have had a Lazarus pit, which is never satisfactorily explained.
I'm really tickled how much of the movies call back to individual panels. The waterfall. T'Challa catching one of K'Ruel's arrows the way he catches Hawkeye's. The silent ships sliding over the landscape. The accusation that T'Challa himself is part of the establishment that is not creating a just order.
I am glad I read it, though it was a bit of a slog some times. Wakanda forever.